Guest Lecture on Insights to Food Industry Workspace: Department of PG Studies in Food Science & Nutrition

The Department of PG Studies in Food Science & Nutrition organized a guest lecture on the topic “Insights to Food Industry Workspace” on 22nd January 2024 at 10.30 am for the 1st & 2nd MSc students by Ms. Laxmi Priya, who works as a QC & Production Manager at Nata Nutrico Coconut Products, Kerala. The speaker began the session by briefing on various section of food industry like raw material collection, production unit, packaging & storage section. Later on she showed the unit setup at Nata Nutrico Coconut Products & explained on why it is termed as small scale industry as it had has a turnover of around 20crore annually & has 20 employees in Kerala unit.

Moving on to the duties of QC she explained the role of a quality control officer in checking quality at raw material end & at the final product stage where as in case of production manager it will be to monitor the production from raw material stage to final stage of finished product whereas packaging & quality check will be done by QC the quality will be assured. Apart from this she even explained on the role of QC during storage studies where they need to physically examine the product to be safe for consumption & sale. She even explained the precautions to be taken as QC & Production Manager to prevent manufacturing loss such as checking on the quantity of raw materials & packaging materials available, the physical facilities like electricity & water facility, labor power & so on. The resource person explained the other doubts of the students & gave their product Nata De-Coco product for tasting & evaluation. Overall the session provided an exposure to the scenario in the food industry.